Book Review - Prospero's Children

Prospero's Children
by Jan Siegel
Why I picked it up: I don't remember why...I read it ages ago back when I was in high school. This year I realized there were two sequels out so I brought all the books back with me to Scotland and have begun rereading them!
My rating: 7.5/10

This book is about a sixteen year old girl named Fern Capel. When a distant relative of the family dies, he leaves his old country house to Fern and her family (Dad and younger brother Will). The family goes to the house to see what they need to do to sell it when the dad decides they should stay there over the summer and fix it up and eventually sell it. As soon as they move in for the summer, things start getting weird. Fern and Will meet old, powerful beings (both good (?) and evil) who urge them to find an old magical key that is thought to open a door somewhere. While Fern discovers her Gift, she and her brother struggle through their search racing to find it before their father's new girlfriend, Alison, does. Little do Fern and the others know that opening the door will bring them an ocean full of trouble.

When I look at this book for the second time when I was home for winter break, I couldn't remember whether I liked it or not. I was pretty sure I did but I did remember that it freaked me out a bit. I certainly remembered that correctly! There are a couple scenes in the beginning of the book that left me being like ooohhh I'm glad I'm not home alone tonight! As I read, I remembered quite a few things from the first part of the book but I forgot a lot of the major details which allowed me to enjoy it again. This book is thrilling and suspenseful. It is minutely darker than what I usually read but not that much. I should also mention that this book has to do with Atlantis. I didn't know where to fit that into the description. :) I definitely recommend it and can't wait to see what happens next...

Next book - The Dragon Charmer (sequel to Prospero's Children)